Atlas of European Values

Many Europeans simply do not feel “European,” judging from the findings in the latest edition of the Atlas of European Values, released in December by Dutch academic publisher Brill. The Atlas covers the attitudes, concerns, and values of people in 45 countries.

With a looming debt crisis threatening to break the European Union apart, the differences of opinions on religion, immigration, sexuality and gender issues, family, work, and morality may be more acute than ever. European values remain divided geographically, though central Europe is converging more with the western nations.

“Interestingly, the book also provides a picture of the direction in which Europe seems to be heading,” writes European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in the book’s preface. “Modernisation and individualisation have gained ground, especially in the North-Western parts. However, traditional family values still dominate.”

Among other findings, the Atlas reports:

• Despite the high divorce rate, marriage remains popular. Europeans retain relatively traditional family values, and loyalty is seen as the key success factor for a marriage.
• Single mothers are accepted, but Europeans think that it is better for a child to have a father.
• In northern Europe, cheating in marriages is more tolerated than in the south.
• Europeans are still religious, but religion is increasingly viewed as a personal matter rather than something linked to an institution.
• The rich countries of Europe are the least willing to pay for a clean environment.
• Confidence in the EU is highest in countries that are keen to receive funds from the EU and lowest in the countries that provide the funding.

Source: Atlas of European Values, published by Brill, www.brill.nl/atlas-european-values-trends-and-traditions-turn-century.

Doomsday for the Arts?

The fine arts in Nigeria—a relatively young institution—may be on a path to a doomsday scenario if current trends continue, warns University of Nigeria art historian Ola Oloidi.

In a recent lecture for the National Gallery of Art, Oloidi cited dwindling enrollment of students in university art programs. But perhaps an even more threatening trend is the merging of fine and applied arts into environmental sciences programs, along with architecture and urban and regional planning.

“Though the National Universities Commission has justified this change by saying that art should not be taught to produce fine and applied artists alone ‘but also to influence developments’ in the above newly found neighbors, the professed philosophy of the new faculty that accommodates fine arts clearly shows that art has lost some natural values while acquiring new ones that are now derailing or upsetting visual arts as aesthetic, humanistic, and industrial tools,” he said in the lecture.

The loss of art is also a loss for future creativity and innovativeness, Oloidi warned in a message directed toward academic policy makers.

Sources: “A Brief History of Art” by Okechukwu Uwaezuoke, This Day (Nigeria), December 15, 2011, www.thisdaylive.com/articles/a-brief- history-of-art/105081/.

National Gallery of Art, 10th Annual Distinguished Lecture, www.nga.gov.ng/ 2011annuallecture.html.